A/N: I am not sure about this chapter but I hope it works OK. Thank you as ever to everyone who reads and reviews!

Sarah x

They got in the house and kicked their shoes off, and Serena was glad to feel the cool floor against her feet after a long day at work. She watched Alec as he wandered away to the living room; by the time she caught up with him, he had already thrown himself onto the sofa. His body language was slightly odd – he smiled and he laughed but he walked like he had the weight of the world pulling him down.

"Are you sure you're OK, Alec?" she sighed as she sat next to him, letting her body fall against his arm. "You are still clean, aren't you?"

"What sort of question is that?" he hotly demanded. His dalliance with drugs hadn't lasted long but she had seen the pain it caused him in recovery, and she could not doubt the hold it had on him during those months after their father's death.

"I just worry about you!" Serena countered in an attempt to defend her line of questioning. Nearly thirty years had passed since she had been forced to save him from himself, but not a day went by that she didn't wonder if he had ever relapsed and hid it too well, and some times the distance between them as they had got on with their lives terrified her. He always kept her smiling but she could never quite forget that he struggled to live at times. "Alec," she murmured. "Be honest with me. Please."

She felt him put his arm around her and she knew then something was wrong. He kissed her head and said, "You worry too much."

"Can you blame me?" was her answer to his light accusation as he danced around the question. He was half-cut but he still knew how to do the dance, to pretend he had never fallen into that hole. He could drink, and he could handle it well, but it always intensified the silly persona he so often hid behind.

He stood up and smiled down on her. "Hungry?" he asked her. She smiled despite her worry and fear, because he was looking after her just like he did when they were children, before the roles were so tragically reversed. "What a stupid question," he laughed, leaving her behind to find the kitchen. "Where's the pasta?" he shouted through to her.

"Top cupboard!" she shouted, picking up her phone. She looked in the call logs at her missed calls, the most recent two from Edward. She then looked at her text messages and saw the most recent one; it was from Ric, and it read: Get home safe. Don't say anything you'll regret ;) we all know Alec can't keep a secret now.

Serena grinned in the knowledge that Ric was taking what Alec had said to him with humour and that he wasn't letting it make things awkward between them. With a smile on her lips, she sent back – Shut it. Don't you dare wind me up over that.

Of course, Alec had been right. She did feel something for Ric, and she feared it meant so much more than 'fancying the pants off him' as Alec had put it. He had her back even when she probably didn't deserve it, and she, in an odd way, could see them in her head, entangled emotionally in something she could not quite understand.

The phone vibrated again and she picked it up only to read, But it's so much fun. Has he kicked off at Edward yet?

Serena sighed; he had just reminded her of what was inevitable. She knew at some point tensions between Alec and Edward were going to boil over, and she only hoped that she, or someone else, was there to intervene when it happened. She had briefly reconsidered her reluctance when it came to Alec falling in with the likes of Jonny Maconie and Mo Effanga; they might have been the jokers but they were more peaceful than many. They made a joke where Alec was more inclined smack someone, and that was a behaviour that he could do with learning.

No, and don't encourage him. I don't want Edward having any influence on him until I know why he's here, she replied.

She hated admitting to someone else that she had her doubts about the motives of her own brother, but she did. She always doubted what Alec was thinking when he made these big decisions. He seemed well enough, and she didn't see any sign of him slipping, but still the idea troubled her. Her phone vibrated once more in her hand, and she opened the message. Why are you worrying? I know you're worrying. I'll keep an eye on Edward for you if you keep Alec on a leash.

Serena smiled when she realised Ric was offering to take some of the weight off her, that he was as much averse to the idea of round two of 'Edward versus Alec' as she was. He's got his issues. I just hope none of them have come up again. Thanks. I can handle one. I can't handle both.

Ric seemed the easiest person in the world to speak to about Alec, and in the back of her mind she knew he understood how difficult this was. Leo, his son, had died of a drugs overdose. It was just sheer luck Alec hadn't joined him.

Serena sighed and set her phone down on the sofa, suddenly wishing she hadn't told Ric that Alec had problems. They were always in the background but they were there – his drug problem, his grieving problem, his temper problem...they were always there, and it was always Serena who dealt with them. She had said to Guy that she wasn't, but sometimes she felt like she was her brother's keeper. She managed him when the rest of the family let him get on with it, lost as what to do with him. It was frustrating at times, but at least she knew she was good for something.

She jumped when her phone rang; she was about to decline the call when she realised it wasn't Edward at all. It was Ric. "Hello?" she answered cautiously. She didn't want Alec walking in on a discussion about him.

"Serena," replied Ric. "Are you alright? You don't sound very good."

"I'm fine, Ric," she sighed. "It's just Alec showing up and everything, it's knocked me for six."

"Maybe he just misses his little sister," he teased. "What's the problem with him being here? Don't you want him around?"

Serena glanced at the door to make sure Alec was not there, but she could hear him happily singing away at the top of his voice in the kitchen. "Of course I want him here," she hissed at Ric, trying to keep her voice low. "But he didn't warn me. He didn't tell Mum or David or Daniel. He disappeared for weeks on end until now. Doesn't that seem odd to you?!"

"And what are his issues?"

"Drugs," she quietly confessed. "He got in a bad state with drugs when our dad died." She heard Ric's silence and knew he understood her concern now. "That was nearly thirty years ago but he struggles with life in general. He deals with my life better than he deals with his own."

"Do you think he's on drugs again?"

"He seems alright," she admitted. "He was alright at work. He's alright after a few drinks. It just scares me to death when he takes these drastic measures," she explained. "I don't like it. It just doesn't feel right."

"It'll be OK, Serena," he assured her. "We can keep an eye on him."

"We?"

"You don't actually want to go it alone, do you?" he challenged her gently. She went to answer him back but faltered. He was right. If this was as messed up as she feared, he was the one person she didn't want to push out. Ric Griffin and Jac Naylor were two people she would always want fighting her corner, and Alec needed the likes of Jonny, Mo, Sacha and Mary-Claire to remind him who he was. Serena was going to need Ric; it was as simple and as complicated as that. "I didn't think so. Look, Serena, you can trust me. I thought you'd have worked that out by now."

Serena stood up and went to the living room door, seeing Alec grating cheese onto a plate. "I know. I know I can trust you."

"Rena, where's the cornflour?!" Alec's voice boomed through the house.

Serena covered the transmitter of the phone to protect Ric's ears before she shouted back, "Right beside where you found the pasta! Are you blind or something?!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he retorted, and she could just hear the smirk in his voice.

"Sounds like you're having fun," Ric commented.

"He's cooking," Serena explained, her voice a drawl as she was torn between amusement and disapproval that he was pottering about her kitchen half-cut. "Listen, Ric, thank you. It's a weight off my mind to know someone out there understands why I get a bit worried."

"It's no problem," he answered. "You know where I am, day or night."

"I know. Thank you."

"Now go and save your kitchen," he ordered her with a deep chuckle. "Goodnight, Serena."

"Goodnight, Ric," she laughed gently. She hung up the phone with a sigh and padded barefoot through to the kitchen to find Alec in his own little world as he poured milk into a cup and started stirring it – she could only assume there was cornflour in that cup as well. The kitchen was neat and ordered like it always was when he cooked.

She could smell it a mile off now that she knew what it was – macaroni cheese. Deciding that the only thing she could do to help was to get something to eat with, she opened the end cupboard. "Why is it you can only ever cook when you're half-cut?" Serena sighed, carelessly dumping two bowls on the bunker.

Alec grinned as e stirred the pot and poured in his milk and cornflour mixture. "It's a gift." Serena laughed and got two cans of cola from the fridge – they had enough alcohol earlier. "And anyway, who would have fed you tonight if I wasn't so completely awesome? Don't bite the hand, Rena," he smirked, tapping her nose with the wooden spoon, leaving cheese sauce on her face.

She glared at him and reached for the kitchen roll to wipe the sauce away, and she answered him, "I've not only fed myself for most of my life but my daughter and husband too. I think I am perfectly capable of cooking, thank you very much."

Alec snorted and replied, "Serena, that fridge is bare. There's hardly anything worth eating in the cupboards. There's not a piece of fruit or a vegetable to be seen. The milk goes out of date tomorrow. There's no bread. Anyone would think you don't eat at all."

She looked at the floor and knew he was right. She really didn't look after herself sometimes. She didn't eat when she should have done and she maybe drank too much half the time as well, but she was perfectly functional.

"After work tomorrow we are going to a supermarket and we are getting you some decent food," he informed her, his voice stern as he spooned the macaroni cheese into the bowls, "and you are going to eat properly." She groaned at the very thought and picked up the bowls; Alec picked up the cans and two spoons and followed her to the living room. She turned the TV on and handed him the remote control.

It was laughable that he now lectured her about looking after herself, but there was a time he couldn't even survive without her help. She loved him regardless, of course, but it was sickeningly ironic. She watched him as he flicked through the planner on the TV and opened his can, happily spooning pasta into his mouth. He seemed alright, but he was good at appearing to be in a better state than he felt. She learned that the hard way.

But she hadn't a hope in hell of getting it out of him tonight, so she settled down and watched the television with him, letting Ric's words of support ring in her head occasionally when her mind doubted Alec's appearance.

Hope this is alright!
Please feel free to leave me a review and tell me what you think!
Sarah x